William Albert "Bill" Chaney (December 23, 1922 – March 13, 2013) was an American historian of Anglo-Saxon England who spent his career, from 1952 until his death, teaching at Lawrence University. At various times, he held the George McKendree Steele endowed chair (1962–99) and the chair of the history department (1968–71).

Chaney spent his entire career at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, arriving at then Lawrence College in 1952.[1] His research interest in Anglo-Saxon England culminated in his 1970 book The Cult of Kingship in Anglo-Saxon England: The Transition from Paganism to Christianity,[3] and the widely cited 1962 article Grendel and the Gifstol: a Legal View of Monsters.[1][4]